Before the advent of WordPress, every website owner who wanted to change the design of his site, or even make modifications to the old design, had to wait for days or even weeks for the website designer to make the required design.
Now with the presence of the wonderful WordPress tool, specifically through the ready-made WordPress templates, every website owner can completely change the design of their site in less than 5 minutes.
The options here are almost limitless, there are thousands of great WordPress themes available for all website owners to choose from, some of which are free, and some of which are paid at really nominal prices compared to the quality and beauty of the design.
In this article, you will literally find everything you need to understand WordPress templates as an expert who knows all aspects professionally.
In case you do not have a WordPress site yet, and you want to understand more about WordPress, first read the topics below:
What are wordpress templates?
In order to understand what WordPress themes are, we must first understand what WordPress is.
WordPress in a nutshell: It is a comprehensive Content Management System. This system consists of software files that are uploaded to the web host and set on the site, and then allows site owners a comprehensive system to control everything on their sites, through an easy and simple control panel.
WordPress basically provides a set of core files that contain the core or kernel of the system with its features and characteristics. But in order for your site to appear professionally in front of visitors, it needs another set of files, which is called a WordPress template.
Based on this, we can define WordPress themes as: a group of independent software files that together represent everything that is visible and visible to your visitors, i.e. the design of your site.
This includes site colors, zoning, font size, type, and color.
This also includes some of the features and software that works in unison, and integrated with the core WordPress files.
Because WordPress is open source software , anyone can make and sell a WordPress theme for their own account. Also, any specialist can make modifications to the WordPress template he uses, to make it more suitable for his website.
WordPress templates usually consist of three sets of files: PHP Files, CSS Files, JS Files.
Here are some other introductions to WordPress themes and how they work:
1. WordPress themes are a separate bundle of files, which are primarily responsible for the appearance of any WordPress site.
2. WordPress is made in such a way that any user can replace WordPress themes at will (ie, replace that independent package of files).
3. In order for your WordPress site to function properly it must have a template to show the content in front of the user, so WordPress comes with a free default template to run the site.
4. Although a WordPress theme is a separate set of files and can be changed, it is a core piece of the WordPress puzzle, so some core WordPress features work primarily through themes.
List of best wordpress templates
In this list I will put a set of great WordPress templates, which you can use in an Arabic language site, that is, it has an RTL feature.
1. Open
A multitasking theme, that can be used for any possible purpose, is the best-selling WordPress theme of all time (the number of sales is close to half a million).
It is a template characterized by a huge amount of features and options, that enable you to create any website you want, and exactly the way you want it.
2. Page
It is one of the most famous, best and most used templates in Arabic content, and almost based on its name “Sahifa” it is designed and developed by one of the Arab web developers.
A template whose owner is interested in constantly updating, “The last update was two days ago from the date of the article’s publication.” It is a responsive template with all screen sizes, and it has a very high level of evaluation. This template is mainly designed for blogs and news sites.
3. Enfold
Another great versatile theme, which is also one of the fastest to load WordPress themes. Of course, this template supports the Arabic language, is a template optimized for search engines, and works well with all browsers.
Enfold is one of the best-selling theme on Forest theme, and it has an excellent rating.
4. KALLYAS
A great WordPress theme created specifically for e-commerce sites , but it’s also a flexible one, and can be used for other types of sites like blogs and news sites. It has been sold more than 40,000 times before, and has a meter appraisal level.
This template is distinguished by providing a great support service and distinct from the others, and also features innovative designs for the sidebar of the site.
5. Herald
This template is the template we use in Winners, it’s a great template for blogs, news sites, and e-magazines.
The Herald theme is easy to use, customizable, fast, and has clean code that is great for search engines.
6. SmartMag
An excellent WordPress theme for review sites, blogs, and e-magazines. Of course, it supports the Arabic language and it will be converted to the Arabic language automatically as soon as it detects that you are using Arabic WordPress.
Excellent for displaying Google Adsense ads, and friendly to search engines.
7. Soledad
A specialized WordPress template to display the content of blogs, e-magazines, and news sites. It is characterized by its high speed because it contains clean code and is compatible with all Internet browsers, and with all screen sizes.
The great thing about this template is that it has a lot of homepage designs, no matter how many people have bought it before, you can still get a unique design with it.
I will suffice with this list, because shortly I will make you have all the information that will enable you to choose a great WordPress template for your site yourself, according to your own needs.
The difference between free and paid WordPress themes
One of the points that many WordPress users, especially beginners Arabs, are interested in is the cost of the WordPress template. Many users are looking for free WordPress themes to use instead of paying for paid themes.
To settle this point we first need to define both the free and paid themes:
First Free WordPress Templates
Templates are mostly designed by volunteers, available on some websites, and they can be accessed, downloaded and used completely free of charge.
In fact, many of these templates are on the official WordPress website, and they can be accessed, installed and activated directly from the WordPress dashboard.
It can also be accessed from the official WordPress website
Secondly, the paid WordPress template
They are templates designed by professional companies, and they are found in many famous stores, as well as on specialized websites. And to get it, you have to pay an amount of money, which is on average from 20 to 100 US dollars.
In fact, without further ado, we recommend using a paid WordPress template, especially for ambitious people who want to perform better for their sites and thus achieve the best results through it.
We recommend a paid WordPress theme for the following reasons:
a) Free templates are available to all WordPress users, so you will find most of their users are amateurs, beginners, and little experienced, and of course, if you are looking to create a unique WordPress site, you do not have to belong to this category.
b) The creators of paid WordPress themes know that there are more of them available for free, and this often pushes them and compels them to make premium, higher quality themes to be worth the money paid for them.
c) By owning a paid WordPress theme, you will get a free lifetime update for this theme. Paid theme owners are constantly updating themes to solve technical problems, add more features, and generally improve their performance.
D) By owning a paid WordPress template, you will get a free support service for a period of time (6 months or a year), during this period of time you can always communicate with the owner of the template to solve a problem, or clarify a feature…etc.
There may be more reasons, but I will suffice with what I have already mentioned. The bottom line here is that buying a paid WordPress theme for your site is an investment well worth the money paid.
Now let’s get to know in general about the most important factors that you should choose a WordPress template based on.
6 very important factors for choosing the right WordPress themes
In this part, I will give you a set of important points that will help you choose a professional WordPress template for your site.
1. Keep in mind the purpose of use
In fact, WordPress is a platform that suits all types of websites, so you will find WordPress templates designed specifically for each type of website.
For example, you will find WordPress templates dedicated to cooking sites, and others that are more suitable for displaying images, and others dedicated to sites that profit from Google Adsense … etc.
Therefore, it is important here to have a clear view of your site and the nature of the content that you will provide with it.
2. Choose a WordPress theme that is responsive to all devices and browsers
The Internet user now surfs the web using many types of devices (laptop, computer, tablet, smart phone). Of course, the screen sizes of these devices are different from each other.
As a result of this development in the world of web browsing, a new concept of website design in general and WordPress templates in particular emerged. This concept is called Responsive in English, which means responsive in Arabic.
That is, the design is so flexible that it adapts nicely, and works efficiently with all screen sizes.
Before purchasing a WordPress template, you must make sure that it is a responsive template. It is also important to make sure that the template works perfectly with the most popular and important Internet browsers (such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.).
3. Your WordPress theme must support the language of your site
Here we are assuming that you will make a site in Arabic, so the WordPress template that you will choose must support Right To Left and RTL, that is, the ability to display content from right to left, this does not apply to texts only, but must include the design itself.
4. You should consider carefully how much change you can make to the template
The WordPress template is not just a set of static files, but it also contains its own control panel, through which you can make a lot of modifications, do a lot of customization, and activate the capabilities and features you want.
You can, of course, customize the template through the WordPress control panel, by entering the theme, then templates, and then clicking on the customize button that appears in front of the template used.
Of course here the more options the template contains, and a lot of modifications can be made to it, the more there is the possibility of it appearing distinctively even if there are many others who use it.
5. Choose an SEO friendly template
There is a term called SEO Friendly that is present in the template description, or in its list of features.
SEO Friendly: It means that the template is compatible with SEO standards , and this includes many aspects, and these are the most important ones:
- Clean code with no errors
- Download speed
- Ease of moving between website pages through menus
- Distinctive and attractive design that gives a good user experience
- Good branding for the site.
6. Simplicity of design is the title of beauty
Many WordPress themes come with loads of colors, intricate designs, and flashy animations, sometimes you might need these things, but in most cases all you need is a simple and easy to use theme.
You have to remember that the purpose of the website design, is to help users find the information they need, and to help you as the owner of the website achieve your goals.
Any WordPress template does not serve this purpose, even if it is beautiful from your point of view, it is not the right template for your site.
Read also: How To Add W3 Total Cache For WordPress Caching
How to choose a professional WordPress theme from themeforest
Themeforest is the largest marketplace for buying WordPress themes on the web. It contains thousands of professional WordPress themes, is easy to use and has a set of great search features, through which you can reach what you want specifically.
In fact, whatever you need, you can find it on Themeforest.
Using Theme Forest is very easy, because of its great search features, through which you can filter the options for the fewest possible number of WordPress themes.
To get a great WordPress theme and buy it from Theme Forest, follow these steps:
1. Go to the templates page of Themeforest
You can do this by clicking on the link below.
https://themeforest.net/
After entering the main page, click on WordPress in the white list to go to the advanced search page in WordPress templates, as shown in the image below.
2. Set filter options
As shown in the image above, there are approximately 12,000 WordPress templates on the Theme Forest site, and here to make the list of results narrower we have to adjust some options.
Looking at the page in the image above, you will find that at the top it contains a search rectangle, below it you will find that the page is divided into two columns:
Larger column on the right: Contains a list of WordPress themes according to the options that will be selected in the column on the left.
The smaller column on the left: It contains a lot of options through which you can filter the results, and narrow the list of options in the right column.
You will find that the column on the left is divided into parts, and each part expresses a specific type of filtering options, and this is an explanation of each of them:
A) Category (through which you can filter the results according to template classifications by type, for example Blog Magazine, to access templates that are suitable for making blogs or magazines containing various articles).
b) Tags (to filter the results according to the tags for each template). Here, each template owner chooses a set of tags to express the features of the template. For example, if you choose the Modern tag, only the modern and newly designed templates will appear.
c) Price (to determine the minimum and maximum price that suits you).
d) Sales (to filter the results according to the sales volume for each template, of course a good template is supposed to get a large number of sales).
e) Rating (to filter the results according to the rating of the customers who bought the template, of course the highest rating is from 4 to 5 stars).
n) Date added (to filter the results according to the date the template was added to the theme forest site).
f) Software Version (to filter results according to WordPress versions).
j) Compatible With (to filter the results according to their compatibility with some other elements, for example choosing Woocommerce will only show you the templates that work well with the addition of Woocommerce for creating an online store )
It is worth noting here that you can filter the results according to a number of items, and not according to one item, and you can also use the search rectangle above.
After selecting your filter elements, you will find that the list of templates has decreased, you can continue with the filter options until you bring the list of results to a few dozen templates, so that you can check each WordPress theme yourself, see its features and watch its demo.
3. Buy the template
Once you reach the best option according to your own circumstances, enter the template page, by clicking on the template title on the previous search page.
Once you enter the template page, you will find the “Buy now” button on the right, click on it to go to the page of entering the data of the purchase process, and then complete the purchase of the template.
Now let’s move on to the last part of our topic today, which is how to upload and activate a WordPress theme for your site.
How to install and activate a wordpress template
As we mentioned above, the WordPress site contains many, many free templates, which you can choose and use directly from the WordPress store.
In the case of purchasing a WordPress template, after the purchase you are supposed to get a zip file containing the template files, which you can upload and use on your site.
In this part, I will explain how to install and activate the WordPress template in both cases:
Here are the steps to install and activate WordPress themes:
1- Go to the WordPress dashboard.
2- Go to the Templates Manager page: In the Tasks column in the Control Panel on the right, stand on the Appearance tab, then click Templates.
3- Click on the Add New button: After clicking on the Templates button, you will go to the Templates page as shown in the image below. Now, click on Add New, indicated by the arrow in the image.
4- Install and activate the template you want: From here you can choose between installing a free template from WordPress, or uploading template files you purchased, and this is an explanation for each case.
Case 1: Install and activate a free WordPress template
After clicking on the Add New button in step 3, you will be taken to the free WordPress themes page. You will find that the templates are categorized according to some categories, and you will also find the feature of searching in templates.
To install a template, stand on it and press the install button, as shown in the image below.
After pressing the install button, you will find in front of you in the same place as the button the download mark, with a message “Installation is in progress.” Within less than a minute, you will find in the template from the top to the right the word “Position” with a check mark.
This means that the template was installed successfully. You will also find a button where the install button is written on it, by clicking on it, the template will be activated on your site.
The second case: Installing and activating a paid template
As we mentioned above that by purchasing a template, you will get a zip file containing the template files, which is supposed to be on your computer.
After clicking on the Add New button in Step 3 and going to the Free WordPress Templates page, at the top of the page to the right you will find the “Upload Template” button.
Click on it, to find the button to upload the template file from your device, as shown in the image below.
After clicking on the Choose File button, a window for your computer will open, access the template file and double-click on it.
After lifting the template, enter the templates again and stand on it and press the activate button.
In the end, I hope that this article will serve as a comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to understand WordPress themes, and how to choose, install, and activate a professional theme.
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